Why the Open OS Model Failed in Smartphones

Fifteen years ago, when Microsoft ruled the world and Apple was near death, the tech world was convinced that the conceptual batter between Windows and Mac–open operating systems available to all comers vs. closed systems–had been decided firmly in favor of open. But what applied to PCs in the 1990s does not appear to work at all for smartphones in the 2010s, as Google’s planned purchase of Motorola Mobility marks the beginning of the end for the open OS approach.

BusinessWeek cover

A major reason for this is that phones–and tablets–are very different from PCs even though they perform many of the same functions. A phone is a much more tightly integrated device in which it is very difficult to tell where the hardware ends and the software begins. Getting the user experience just right is both harder and more critical, because quirks that are a minor annoyance on a PC–or which can be remedied through an accessory such as a better mouse or keyboard–become killer flaws.

It’s easy to forget today that the first real winner in the smartphone market was Research In Motion’s BlackBerry, a closed system. RIM’s accomplishment was to provide a tightly controlled, secure mobile email device (the earliest models offered neither voice not internet service) that provided seamless access to corporate mail servers.

RIM could make this work because it controlled the hardware, the software, and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server middleware. Its rivals in those early days were the Palm Treo and Microsoft Windows Mobile. Palm was a bizarre beast that never really worked. Its owner, 3Com, first licensed the Palm OS to other manufacturers, then spun its software unit off into a separate company, PalmSource. The Treo was developed by one of those licensees, Handspring, which had been started by Palm’s founders. Palm eventually bought Handspring and reacquired some rights to the Palm OS, but it never had full control of the software. That’s a major reason why Palm and PalmOS gradually became non-competitive.

Microsoft’s mistakes were different, but illustrative of the traps inherent in an open phone operating system. In the best Windows tradition, Microsoft gave its handset manufacturers a lot of design freedom. It ended up with phones with a variety of screen sizes and configurations, with and without touchscreens, with and without physical keyboards. The hodgepodge of hardware made it impossible for Microsoft to provide a consistent–or particularly good–user experience on all Windows Mobile devices. And third-party software developers had a very hard time writing applctions that worked well, or sometimes at all, on all devices. In a final irony, until almost the very end, BlackBerry did a much better job of providing mobile access to Microsoft Exchange servers than Windows Mobile did.

Apple, of course, changed the game completely with the 2007 introduction of the iPhone, and again in 2010 with the iPad. Apple controls every aspect of the ecosystem, Apple software running on Apple hardware that can load only Apple-approved applications. This has horrified fans of open systems. such a Cory Doctorow and Jonathan Zittrain, but the mass market’s love for these devices has allowed Apple to suck up the lion’s share of profits in the handset industry and to define the tablet market to the point where it has no effective competition.

Except for Android, the open model has now all but collapsed. Nokia never achieved widespread adoption of Symbian by other manufacturers. Linux-based LiMo went nowhere, as did Nokia’s Maemo, Intel’s Moblin, and their love child, MeeMo.

The status of Windows Phone is uncertain. After the Windows Mobile nightmare, Microsoft set very tight design standards for its attempt to rejuvenate the platform. OEMs have a limited choice of display size and a physical keyboard is optional, but other specs must comply with the reference design. And Microsoft’s tight alliance with Nokia could result in, effectively, a line of “official” Nokia-built Windows Phone products. It’s nominally still a market where Microsoft offers its OS to any willing license, buy Redmond really controls the game.

Android’s openness has been a blessing and a curse. The free-to-all-comers OS has allowed the platform to gain a great deal of market share very quickly. It has also proved extremely frustrating to consumers, with a proliferation of designs and software versions all with different capabilities and no consistency in their ability to run third-party apps. With an iPhone, you know you will always be able to run the most recent version of the iOS software and any product in the App Store (with minor exceptions for some older models that lack some hardware features of more recent ones.) With Android, you just never know.

I suspect this will change in significant ways as a result of the Motorola Mobility acquisition. Google is never going to become Apple, but I suspect that the Android market is going to look a lot more like Windows Phone does today, with Motorola playing an even more central role than Nokia will for Microsoft. This sort of hybrid of open software with an official hardware maker is novel and largely untested; Palm and Nokia both nibbled at it, but neither was a fair test.

However it turns out, however, it looks like any attempt to build smartphones on the PC model is over.

 

Published by

Steve Wildstrom

Steve Wildstrom is veteran technology reporter, writer, and analyst based in the Washington, D.C. area. He created and wrote BusinessWeek’s Technology & You column for 15 years. Since leaving BusinessWeek in the fall of 2009, he has written his own blog, Wildstrom on Tech and has contributed to corporate blogs, including those of Cisco and AMD and also consults for major technology companies.

61 thoughts on “Why the Open OS Model Failed in Smartphones”

  1. Can you clarify what your definition of Open is? There is not a truly open-source phone operating system other than perhaps MeeGo, if you want to stretch the Phone OS definition that far. Even Android is only partially open in the open-source sense of the word.

  2. I’ll let Steve speak for himself but I think he is referring to an OS that anyone can license and use. Not necessarily open source just open for use. Apple’s is not open to license nor is RIM’s, for example.

    1. I think that using Open in this way does nothing but confuse and devalue the meaning of Open. I would like to suggest a more appropriate word: mercenary.

  3. It failed when 40% of the US market is on Android, less than three years after first ship?

    Agree Motorola purchase makes future less clear, but does the crystal ball really show “fail”?

    1. Yes, 40%, but this is the beginning of the end.
      The only reason it had such huge market share is because Android is open for licensing to be used by other manufacturers and at that time, the only good os available for licensing is Android. When Android was first revealed, there weren’t any other os which is good enuf: WinMo was a goner, Symbian is shit, WebOs failed to pick up from the beginning. Imagine if apple let’s other people use their os, I’m sure it wouldn’t be just 40%.

  4. Of course, now there’s the rumor that Google is backing away from the Motorola purchase.

    Maybe they finally realized that they were snookered into buying it in the first place.

    They really don’t seem to have a good management team there.

  5. I have to thank you for the efforts you have put in penning this
    website. I’m hoping to view the same high-grade content from you later on as well.
    In truth, your creative writing abilities
    has motivated me to get my very own blog now 😉

  6. We’re a group of volunteers and opening a brand new scheme in our community.
    Your website offered us with helpful info to work on. You have done a formidable job and our whole community will likely be grateful to
    you.

  7. When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a
    comment is added I get four e-mails with the same comment.

    Is there any way you can remove me from
    that service? Thanks a lot!

  8. Hello there! This post couldn’t be written any better!
    Going through this post reminds me of my previous roommate!

    He continually kept preaching about this. I’ll send this post to him.
    Fairly certain he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!

  9. I do not know if it’s just me or if everyone else experiencing issues with your
    blog. It seems like some of the written text on your posts are running
    off the screen. Can someone else please comment and let me know if this is happening to them as well?
    This could be a problem with my browser because I’ve had
    this happen previously. Thank you

  10. I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up!

    I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to come back
    in the future. All the best

  11. Hey There. I found your blog the usage of msn. That is an extremely neatly written article.
    I’ll make sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful info.
    Thanks for the post. I’ll certainly return.

  12. Definitely believe that which you stated. Your favourite justification seemed
    to be at the web the simplest factor to be aware of.
    I say to you, I definitely get annoyed while other folks think about worries that
    they plainly don’t recognise about. You controlled to hit
    the nail upon the highest and outlined out the entire thing without having side effect , folks could take a signal.
    Will probably be back to get more. Thanks

  13. I’m now not certain the place you are getting your information, but good topic.
    I must spend a while learning more or figuring out
    more. Thank you for fantastic information I was in search of this information for my
    mission.

  14. Asking questions are genuinely fastidious thing if you are not understanding anything completely,
    but this piece of writing offers nice understanding yet.

  15. Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading
    through this post reminds me of my previous room mate!
    He always kept talking about this. I will forward this post
    to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Many thanks for sharing!

  16. I’m curious to find out what blog system you happen to be working with?
    I’m having some minor security issues with my latest blog and I’d like to find something more safeguarded.

    Do you have any suggestions?

  17. you’re in reality a just right webmaster.
    The website loading velocity is amazing. It seems that
    you’re doing any unique trick. Also, The contents are masterwork.
    you’ve done a magnificent job in this topic!

  18. Magnificent site. A lot of useful information here.
    I’m sending it to a few friends ans also sharing in delicious.
    And naturally, thank you for your effort!

  19. I every time used to study piece of writing in news papers but now as I am a user of internet so from now I
    am using net for posts, thanks to web.

  20. This design is steller! You most certainly know how to keep a reader amused.
    Between your wit and your videos, I was almost moved to
    start my own blog (well, almost…HaHa!) Wonderful job.

    I really enjoyed what you had to say, and more than that, how you presented it.
    Too cool!

  21. Sweet blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News. Do you have any suggestions on how to get listed in Yahoo News?
    I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there!
    Thank you

  22. hi!,I really like your writing so a lot! percentage we be in contact extra about your article
    on AOL? I require a specialist on this space to unravel my problem.

    May be that’s you! Having a look forward to see
    you.

  23. I was suggested this website by my cousin. I’m not sure whether
    this post is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my trouble.
    You are amazing! Thanks!

  24. Pretty component to content. I just stumbled upon your website and in accession capital to say that I get actually enjoyed account your blog posts.
    Any way I will be subscribing for your augment or even I achievement you get admission to constantly rapidly.

  25. Terrific article! That is the type of information that are meant to be shared around the
    web. Disgrace on the seek engines for now not positioning this submit upper!

    Come on over and consult with my site . Thanks =)

  26. I know this web site provides quality based posts and additional information, is there any other site which
    gives these kinds of information in quality?

  27. I’ve been browsing online greater than 3 hours today, but
    I never found any interesting article like yours.
    It is pretty worth sufficient for me. In my opinion, if
    all webmasters and bloggers made excellent content as you did, the net
    will be a lot more helpful than ever before.

  28. Attractive section of content. I just stumbled upon your site and in accession capital to assert
    that I acquire actually enjoyed account your blog posts.
    Any way I’ll be subscribing to your feeds and even I achievement you
    access consistently rapidly.

  29. I’m really enjoying the design and layout of your site.
    It’s a very easy on the eyes which makes it much more
    pleasant for me to come here and visit more often. Did
    you hire out a designer to create your theme? Outstanding work!

  30. Hi, I do think this is a great blog. I stumbledupon it 😉 I’m going
    to revisit once again since i have bookmarked it. Money and freedom is the best way to
    change, may you be rich and continue to help others.

  31. I am curious to find out what blog system you’re working with?

    I’m experiencing some minor security issues with my latest blog and I’d like
    to find something more secure. Do you have any suggestions?

  32. My brother recommended I may like this web site. He was entirely right.
    This post actually made my day. You can not imagine
    simply how much time I had spent for this info!
    Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *